Pitino news conference puzzles ‘life coach’

Jim Fannin, a self-styled “life coach” who has counseled many major league baseball players, called Rick Pitino’s decision to call a news conference Thursday a “very poor move.”

Such news conferences only draw more attention to an issue Pitino no doubt wishes had never occurred. At the news conference, Pitino angrily chided reporters after excerpts of police interviews with Karen Sypher were aired on Louisville television stations.

“Less is more,” said Fannin, who advised Pitino to ignore media reports. “You let police deal with it.”

In the tapes, Sypher accused Pitino of rape and making payoffs to keep her quiet. Written transcripts of the tapes were made public earlier this month.

Pitino said stories in various newspapers and on television about his encounter with Sypher were “100 percent a lie … except what I told you.”

“When you lash the media, you’re saying you’re bigger than the media,” Fannin said.

Fannin, who grew up in Ashland, has counseled such major league baseball players as Carlos Delgado, Casey Blake and Frank Thomas. He speculated that a sporting impulse might have led Pitino to call the news conference.

“As Pitino knows, if you have a problem with defense, you go on the offense,” Fannin said. “I’m going to attack you so you can’t get to my flaws. It’s a classic mechanism in sports.”